


Jailbird

by DopeSolo



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-23
Updated: 2015-01-23
Packaged: 2018-03-08 17:59:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3218270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DopeSolo/pseuds/DopeSolo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kelley gets thrown into a small town jail on the eve of her high school reunion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jailbird

“I can’t be here!” the short girl yelled as she was led down the small hallway to a holding cell. “You’ve got the wrong girl!”

The brunette in the cell rubbed her eyes, slightly annoyed at having been woken up. She watched the young woman and the much, much older cop argue. 

“You’re name’s O’Hara, right?” The balding officer asked. “Kelley O’Hara?”

The freckled young woman paused, “Well, yeah.”

“Then I don’t got the wrong girl,” he drawled and pulled her along toward the door of the jail cell.

“But I haven’t done anything to earn some… arrest warrant!” The girl argued, waving her handcuffed wrists in the air, as if that’d prove her point.

“Listen darlin’, I’ve heard it plenty times before. But if I let any cute little gal go just because she gave me a sob story, well, I’d be out of a job.” He pushed her into the cell and slammed the door behind her and locked it.

“Do I at least get a phone call? I get one of those right?” She grasped the bars for a second and immediately let go of them and wiped them on her jeans. You never knew what sort of germs lived on the bars of a small, middle of nowhere, jail cell.

“Sure,” the officer chuckled and adjusted his cowboy hat. “After I take my lunch.”

Kelley opened her mouth to protest but he held up a stubby finger, “Now, if you promise to stop all that hollerin’, cause it don’t look like your cellmate appreciates it and neither do I, I’ll take off them cuffs. Deal?”

Kelley clamped her mouth shut and threw a glance behind her at the tall brunette who by now, had set up and was only slightly glaring at Kelley. Kelley swallowed and held up her fists. She nodded.

The officer twirled the keys around his fingers and grinned. “Good girl.” He reached in and uncuffed Kelley and stuffed the cuffs into their pocket on his holster. “Now. Play nice ladies. I’m headin’ out to the diner. So no killin’ each other.” He gave a raspy chuckle and waddled back down the hall.

Kelley’s shoulders slumped as the door closed behind him. This couldn’t be happening. She moved to the unoccupied cot, opposite of the silent stranger and put her face in her hands. She took a deep breath and choked on a sob. She was a good girl. She went to Stanford! Stanford graduates didn’t get pulled over and thrown in jail!

Her chest clenched painfully. She was going to miss her ten year high school reunion because Officer Sucksalot threw her in jail. She was going to miss her chance to gloat about her Stanford degree and her awesome job as an environmental engineer and rub it in Daisy Herring’s stupid smug face. Daisy Herring! The one girl who made her life hell ten years ago.

Kelley let out a sigh and glanced at her watch – a testament to how small this dumb town was – they didn’t even take any accessories off their detainees. What if she really was a hardened criminal who was going to off her cellmate with the gold chain around her neck?

Kelley’s eyes lifted to the stoic woman across from her. Well. Not that she could off this woman – she seemed super fit and had a few inches on Kelley in both reach and height. Kelley chuckled at the visual that popped in her head.

“Something funny?” the woman asked. Her voice, light and higher pitched than what Kelley would have figured, startled her.

“No. I just… No.”

“You’re not mentally unstable are you?” the woman asked.

“What? No.” Kelley answered, slightly confused.

“Well you went from, ‘hollerin’ up a storm’” she stated, in an awful southern twang, “to laughing at absolutely nothing. Sue me if I’m a little concerned for my own safety.”

Kelley grinned and held up her hands. “I’m totally safe to be around. Promise.”

The woman raised an eyebrow and nodded toward Kelley’s wrist. “What time is it?”

Kelley groaned. “Half past three.” She put her face back in her hands.

“Running late?”

“Well I didn’t plan on getting thrown into jail and delaying my trip, if that’s what you’re asking,” Kelley answered with a huff. She folded her arms and leaned back against the cinderblock wall behind her, germs be damned.

The woman nodded and maneuvered onto her back and tucked her hands behind her head. She closed her eyes.

Kelley fidgeted and glanced around the cell. Bland, off-white walls and steel bars. Dirty cement under her feet. A small barred window in the room let just enough light in to see dust particles passing through it. Boring.

“What’re you in for?” Kelley asked, wincing at how cheesy it sounded.

“Murder in the first,” The woman answered and added, after a pause, “Allegedly.”

Kelley’s eyes widened and her hands turned clammy.

“Oh!” She choked out. “Okay well um. Okay.”

The woman grinned, her eyes opened and studied Kelley. “I’m kidding,” she said flatly.

“Oh!” Kelley said again, this time a lot less weary. She forced a laugh. “I knew that.”

The woman muttered something under her breath and sat up slightly, leaning onto an elbow. “I got into a fight, well, an argument, at the diner. Officer Barney Fife had to break it up. Disturbing the peace.”

“With who?”

“Some idiot in the diner who thought it was okay to treat his girlfriend like shit,” the woman said and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear with an eye roll.

“And you got thrown in jail?” Kelley asked incredulously.

“He did too,” the woman shrugged with one shoulder. Apparently he had a history of domestic violence charges and skipped out on a court hearing. I guess I’m just in here until I actually get charged and fined.”

Kelley nodded. “You don’t sound like you’re from here,” she said.

The brunette shook her head and sat up. “I’m not. My flight was diverted and one rental car and four hours of driving later, I’m in this miserable excuse for a town.” She bit her lip, “You’re not from this uh…cozy… little town are you?”

Kelley smiled and waved a hand. “No. Thankfully. I’m from a slightly larger town about two hours from here. Depending on what map you use, my town might actually show up on it.”

The corner of the brunette’s mouth lifted and she sat up fully and reached a hand across the small gap between the two women. 

“I’m Hope.”

“Kelley,” she replied and took Hope’s noticeably larger hand in hers and gave it a firm shake. “So. What’re you doing in my neck of the woods?”

Hope sighed and dropped her hands dramatically to the bunk under her. “I have no idea. My manager sent me on some stupid… quest to find myself.”

Kelley pulled a face. “What?”

Hope rubbed her hands over her eyes. “Apparently, driving through the Deep South is supposed to give me some sort of inspiration for my next book.”

“You’re a writer? Published?” Kelley asked. She gave Hope an appraising look. Not the type of woman who seemed to be a professional writer. She had the body of an athlete. She could see her being a hockey player. Soccer player. Maybe a personal trainer in some big city.

“A few novels. Nothing huge,” Hope said and planted her chin in her hand and squinted at the small window in the corner. “Maybe I’ll write about how some freckled kid finds herself wrongfully accused in a tiny town’s jail,” she smirked.

Kelley rolled her eyes. “I’m not a kid.”

“You’re what? Twenty-three?”

“Almost twenty-eight, thank you very much,” she felt the need to stick out her tongue, but the whole argument of not being a kid would become moot the second she did that. She kept her tongue behind her teeth.

“And what brings our protagonist to the town of… whatever this town is called?”

Kelley brought up her legs and wrapped her arms around them. “Ten year high school reunion.”

“Mm,” Hope nodded, “The sort of event where the only people who go back are the kinds who want to brag about how well they’re doing in life.”

Kelley blushed. “Well, I mean, I’d be lying if I said that it wasn’t my sole intention. But my family is here too. I get to visit with them and well, I don’t see them all that often.”

“Why not?”

“I live in Portland.”

Hope drew back and her face contorted in thinly veiled disgust.

Kelley narrowed her eyes. “What’s wrong with Portland?”

“It’s… It’s Portland,” Hope said, as if that explained it all. 

Kelley was still at a loss and her face must have said so.

“If I recall correctly, the Seattle Reign trounced the Thorns in the championship last year. And the Timbers? Ugh, don’t even get me started with that hot mess.”

Kelley gasped. “Oh God, you’re from Seattle?”

Hope grinned. “The best city in the Pacific Northwest? Yes.”

Kelley blew out a raspberry and gave two enthusiastic thumbs down. Hope let out a laugh and Kelley found herself joining in.

“Seriously though. You travelled all the way across the country to rub it into your high school classmates how much of a hipster you are?”

Kelley rolled her eyes and ignored the hipster comment. “I just want to see how people have turned out. And I really want Daisy Herring to have at least gained nine-hundred pounds and be married to Ethan Iverson and stuck with running the family furniture store.”

Hope tiled her head. “You’ve thought about this a lot.”

Kelley ducked her head. “They made my life… not so easy.”

Hope’s eyes narrowed slightly, interested. “How so?”

Kelley shrugged. “I played soccer and softball in high school. Not really ladylike to play sports. Any girl who was… important was on the cheer squad and dating one of the football players.”

“Not interested in jocks?”

“Not interested in men.”

Hope smiled. “I guess that can be rough for a small town kid in the south.”

“You’re telling me,” Kelley sighed then smiled. “But I made it out. And look at me now.”

Hope blinked. “You’re in jail, Kelley.”

Kelley chuckled. “I mean in the grand scheme of things.”

Hope smiled. “I know.”

Kelley bit her lip. It was a little weird how easy it was to open up to a complete stranger, in jail of all places, but at least Hope seemed to be relatively normal and not some scary inmate that would make Kelley cower in the corner. Even if Hope was from Seattle, she could overlook it and appreciate her company for what it was. At least she wasn’t freaking out anymore about being locked up. 

The door down the hallway opened. Speak of the devil.  
“Ladies,” the beer-bellied officer greeted them. “Good news for the both of you.”

Kelley perked up. Hope raised an eyebrow.

“Ms. Solo, if you can pay the fine, you’re free to go.” Hope’s other eyebrow raised and she nodded and stood up.

“Ms. O’Hara,” the officer said, “I uh, need you to come with me for some questioning.”  
“How is that good news?” Kelley asked.

The officer chuckled. “You get to stretch your legs.” He reached for the keys and held up that same stubby finger. “Now. You follow me Ms. O’Hara. Solo, go to the front desk and you can take care of your fine and be on your way.”

Kelley looked between Deputy Doofy and Hope. She was glad that Hope was getting out of here but a small part of her was a little upset that they’d probably never see each other again. And it’s not like she could just ask Hope for her number. That’d be a little too weird – even for jail.

Hope grabbed her jacket from her cot and shrugged it on. The two women followed the cop wordlessly. Hope kept her eyes forward – Kelley only knew this because she had been trying to catch her eye.  
Once they were past the door the officer waved a hand at the officer on duty at the desk. The middle-aged man gestured for Hope to come over and Kelley swallowed. Hope finally turned to her and let out a small smile.

“Take care of yourself, Kelley.”

Kelley nodded. “Um, you too. Good luck with…your book.”

Hope nodded and just like that, she headed to the desk officer. 

“Ms. O’Hara?”

Kelley brought her gaze back to the officer. He gestured into a small room and Kelley hurried inside. 

He closed the door behind him and wandered over to a small refrigerator under a fold out table. He pulled out two cans of Coke and set one in front of Kelley and gestured for her to sit down.

She eyed him but sat down anyway. He nudged the can forward and she reached for it and popped it open. She took a drink. Loathe as she was to admit it, it tasted ridiculously good.

“Well Ms. O’Hara. Seems like we got off to the wrong start.”

Kelley set the can back down and tilted her head. No shit.

“We just got a fax from the boys over at State Patrol and it seems that you’ve got yourself a good twin, bad twin thing going on.”

“Excuse me?”

“Someone out there is pretending to be you. At least, they’re using your name and gettin’ into all sorts of shenanigans.”

Kelley blanched. “What? Like. Like is this identify theft?”

The officer nodded. “Seems to be. See. What happened is that this other Kelley has been using an old driver’s license of yours.”

“What?”Kelley blinked. “How?”

“Beats me how she got a hold of it. You ever lose your purse or anything?”

Kelley thought back and nodded. “Well, yeah I mean I was visiting my family a few years ago and lost it at a bar or something. I had to use my passport to get onto my flight and when I got back to Oregon, I got a new license there instead.”

The officer nodded and jotted down the information. He tossed the pen down and took a sip from the can.

“Well, it seems like this little lady has been using your license. When we pulled you over for speeding – your Georgia license flagged with multiple moving and parking violations.”

“It’s… It’s not expired yet?”

“That’s just it. It expired three months ago so you were brought in for the violations as well as driving with an expired license, see?”

He sounded way too happy about the situation. Kelley was pissed. Some other girl out there had been basically fucking her over for the past two years and Kelley had no idea. She’d have to check her credit score.

Kelley pinched the bridge of her nose. “So how do you know I’m not the one who really did this?”

The officer chuckled, “Well, aside from your temper tantrum from earlier, this doppelganger of yours was picked up a few days ago in Atlanta. She confessed to the whole thing.”

He reached into a folder and pulled out a faxed copy of the mug shot of fake Kelley. Or, Allison Sweeney as it were. The girl looked enough like Kelley to pass as Kelley. Her hair was a few shades darker and Kelley’s freckles far outnumbered Allison’s. God. What a headache.

“So what do I do now?”

“Well, we’re actively working with State Patrol and they’re gonna do most of the footwork. They just need your contact information. Maybe get a lawyer and let them settle all of this.”

Kelley nodded, still staring at the mug shot in front of her.

The officer slid a form and a pen toward Kelley and she filled it out in silence. She handed back the pen and took a deep breath. She glanced at her watch. It was almost five. She had two hours to drive and the reunion started at 6. She could still be fashionably late. Maybe.

“Am I free to go?” She asked after she settled her hands back in her lap.

“Sure thing. But since you’re an out of state resident we’re gonna need you to pay that speeding ticket.”

Kelley deflated. Of course. Oh well. If it got her out of here and on the road, then so be it. She gave silent thanks to her dad for always reminding her to have her savings account built up for emergencies.

“Officer Pendleton out front will take care of you and get your belongings back to you. Meanwhile, take this with you,” he handed her a business card. We’ll be in touch with regards to Ms. Sweeney. You take care of yourself, Ms. O’Hara and you have a safe trip now,” he smiled.

Kelley forced a small smile. She had to remind herself that Officer, she glanced at the card, Andrews was just doing his job. She took his outstretched hand and shook it, grabbed her Coke and left the small office.

Ten minutes later, Kelley had her purse slung over her shoulder, sunglasses on top of her head and was walking out of the station, a free woman. She walked down the length of the building toward the parking lot where her car had been towed – the towing fee waived as a sort of apology on behalf of the police department.

Kelley dug in her purse for her keys and pulled out the unfamiliar set of keys and rental car keychain. She looked up and stopped short. 

Hope stood there, leaning against what Kelley presumed was her own rental car, arms crossed and a small smile in place.

“I thought you would have hightailed it out of here the second you got out,” Kelley said and slowly began wandering toward Hope.

Hope nodded and looked down. She kicked the gravel a bit with a toe. “I thought about it.”

“Oh?” Kelley asked.

Hope lifted her eyes to Kelley. The early evening sun was only just starting to sink and it lit up her blue eyes to a shade Kelley was sure she hadn’t seen before. Kelley swallowed. 

Hope pushed herself off the car and took the few steps needed to close the distance between the two.

“But I figured I needed to ask you something.”

“And you were going to wait out here all night?”

“No,” Hope chuckled, “The desk sergeant sang like a canary when I asked what was going on with you. Small town folk love their gossip, apparently.”

Kelley smiled. “Yeah. Crazy huh? Stolen Identity. And here you thought I was mentally unstable.”

“The jury’s still out on that one,” Hope replied

“Rude. Was there something you wanted to ask me or did you just want to get one last barb in?”

Hope “Two unrelated questions, actually.”

Kelley waited, small smile playing at her lips.

“One: If I do write a book about some girl who’s locked up in a murder mystery stolen identity sort of scenario, can I name her Kelley?”

Kelley’s eyebrows shot up in delight. “Oh my God are you going to write me as this awesome crime fighting bad ass? Like… Like Jason Bourne? James Bond? Harriet the Spy?!”

Hope scoffed, “I’m not writing you like anything. I’m just using your first name. I like the way it sounds. Kelley liked the way it sounded coming from Hope’s lips but she wasn’t even close to being okay with voicing that opinion.

Kelley grinned. “You absolutely have my permission. I’m going to be immortalized. This is awesome.”

Hope rolled her eyes. “That’s not what…” she sighed and shook her head. “Anyway. Second question. I was wondering… Um… Do you…” She took a breath and laughed at herself. “This is so stupid. Sorry. Kelley. Do you have a date for your reunion?”

Kelley shook her head and bit her bottom lip. “Nope.”

“Well, I mean, if I’m not intruding I was wondering if-“

“Absolutely.”

“Yeah?” Hope asked.

“Yeah,” Kelley answered and reached forward to squeeze Hope’s forearm. 

The corners of Hope’s eyes crinkled as she smiled. “Good.”


End file.
